Skip to main content arrow-down arrow-tail-right arrow-triangle-right calendar camera compass download email eye facebook flag mail phone pin play send square-right tag twitter youtube badge message

Photo credit: Reuters

Malaysia scraps mandatory death penalty, natural-life prison terms

  • DPP in the Media
  • 4 Apr 2023

This article was originally posted in Reuters, 3 April 2023 By

 

 

 

 

 

  • 1,300 convicts will be eligible for sentence review
  • Death penalty has been an ineffective deterrent – minister
  • Moratorium on executions in Malaysia since 2018

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s parliament on Monday passed sweeping legal reforms to remove the mandatory death penalty, trim the number of offences punishable by death, and abolish natural-life prison sentences, a move cautiously welcomed by rights groups.

Malaysia has had a moratorium on executions since 2018, when it first promised to abolish capital punishment entirely.

The government, however, faced political pressure from some parties and rowed back on the pledge a year later, saying it would retain the death penalty but allow courts to replace it with other punishments at their discretion.

Under the amendments passed, alternatives to the death penalty include whipping and imprisonment of between 30 to 40 years. The new jail term will replace all previous provisions that call for imprisonment for the duration of the offender’s natural life.

Life imprisonment sentences, defined by Malaysian law as a fixed term of 30 years, will be retained.

Capital punishment will also be removed as an option for some serious crimes that do not cause death, such as discharging and trafficking of a firearm and kidnapping.

Malaysia’s move comes even as some Southeast Asian neighbours have stepped up use of capital punishment, with Singapore last year executing 11 people for drug offences and military-ruled Myanmar carrying out its first death sentences in decades against four anti-junta activists.

Malaysia’s Deputy Law Minister Ramkarpal Singh said capital punishment was an irreversible sentence and had been an ineffective deterrent.

“The death penalty has not brought about the results it was intended to bring,” he said in wrapping up parliamentary debates on the measures.

The amendments passed apply to 34 offences currently punishable by death, including murder and drug trafficking. Eleven of those carry it as a mandatory punishment.

More than 1,300 people facing the death penalty or imprisonment for natural life – including those who have exhausted all other legal appeals – can seek a sentencing review under the new rules.

Dobby Chew, executive coordinator at the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, said passage of the amendments was a good first step towards total abolition of capital punishment.

“For the most part, we are on the right track for Malaysia – it’s a reform that has been a long time coming,” he said.

“We should not deny the fact that the state is killing someone and whether the state should have this kind of power… having the mandatory punishment abolished is a good time for us to start reflecting about it.”

Latest news

A Lawyer Writes: Man cleared after 12 years in prison Judges find voluntary confession inherently improbable
Read More
Eyewitness News (The Bahamas) - Privy Council quashes conviction of man imprisoned due to ‘forced’ confession
Read More
PRESS RELEASE: Forced to confess - Privy Council quashes conviction in The Bahamas – describing original conviction as “unsafe and unsatisfactory”
Read More
A Review of ‘Voices from Death Row: Art as a form of Expression’
Read More
Voices from Death Row: Lincoln College to host moving art exhibition
Read More
PRESS RELEASE: Whilst out of step with international law, Privy Council rules that Jamaica’s sentencing of children is lawful
Read More
Singapore's imminent execution of Tangaraju Suppiah - Statement from The Death Penalty Project
Read More
New research exploring the motivations and pathways to committing drug crime in Indonesia
Read More
Malaysia scraps mandatory death penalty, natural-life prison terms
Read More
Malaysia set to abolish the mandatory death penalty
Read More
Privy Council clarifies the approach trial judges should adopt when explaining “intent” to juries in The Bahamas
Read More
International Women's Day Q&A: Women in Human Rights
Read More
Cayman News Service: UK court rules against closed-door legal hearing
Read More
Cayman Loop News - Justin Ramoon, sentenced for murder, gets go ahead for judicial review
Read More
PRESS RELEASE - Privy Council refuses to allow Cayman Government to hold secret hearings in prisoner transfer case
Read More
Cayman Compass - Privy Council rules against secret trial for exiled killers
Read More
Cayman Marl Road - Privy Council refuses secret hearings in Cayman prisoner transfer case
Read More
NEW op-ed: Time to scrap capital punishment in Taiwan
Read More
Privy Council: Appeal dismissed amidst serious disclosure failings
Read More
James Guthrie, impressive barrister whose work in the Privy Council included a string of landmark cases – obituary
Read More

Stay up-to-date with our work